Tuesday, December 4, 2007

The Genuine Article: Reporting on the Fixed-Gear Phenomenon

If you're a cyclist, the fixed-gear craze is probably old news to you by now--especially if you live in a big city. But for the mainstream public, it's only now just appearing on their radar. As a result, every so often some newspaper or website will publish the obligatory article about it in their local news or cultural section, as the New York Times notably did this past spring. So, in my ongoing attempt to provide public services of dubious value, I've decided to save America's journalists the trouble by creating a template for future articles. If you're a journalist in a smaller city that hasn't yet reported on the fixed-gear trend, please feel free to use the article below in its entirety. Simply cut and paste, fill in the blanks, put your feet up on your desk, and cruise on up to that deadline!

THE FIX IS IN: Coast To Coast, Nobody's Coasting

by: [your name here]

You may have noticed that a new type of bicycle is taking over the downtown area. At first glance, it looks like a racing bicycle of the sort that Lance Armstrong used to win the Tour de France. However, a closer look will reveal that it lacks the shifting mechanisms that are technically referred to as “gears.” It may even be lacking the stopping devices mechanics and gear-heads call “brakes.” If you’ve seen, hit, or been hit by one of these bicycles recently, then you’ve encountered the hottest thing in bikes today—“fixed-gears,” otherwise known as “fixies.”

The most important difference between fixies and regular bikes is that fixies don’t let you coast. Why wouldn’t you want to coast, you may ask? “It’s like a zen thing,” explained _____, an American Apparel sales clerk, filmmaker, graduate student, and fixed-gear aficionado. “You feel totally connected to the bike. It’s like taking the stairs versus riding an escalator.”

Okay, but what about the part about not having brakes? While some fixed-gear riders do use brakes, others eschew them and instead slow their bikes by locking their legs and skidding. _____, a bartender, filmmaker, musician, and fixed-gear aficionado explained, “It forces you to pay more attention and to stay a step ahead while you’re riding. Instead of playing my iPod at full blast and only looking a car or two ahead, I keep the volume lower and look all the way to the next intersection. I feel much more like an integral part of what’s going on around me. It’s like a zen thing. You feel totally connected to the bike.”

Fixed-gear bicycles are nothing new. In fact, they’ve been around since at least 1986, when Kevin Bacon famously rode one in the film “Quicksilver.” That movie, about a person who delivers documents to companies for money, singlehandedly created the bicycle courier industry. Those couriers, called “messengers,” rode fixed-gear bicycles, bathed infrequently, and carried voluminous shoulder bags just like their idol Mr. Bacon did, and in turn were the inspiration behind fixed-gear craze of today.

Part of the appeal of the fixed-gear bicycle to young people is undoubtedly its minimalism. State-of-the-art carbon fiber road racing bicycles with complicated gear-changing systems can cost thousands of dollars, whereas fixed-gear bicycles with handmade frames, top-end parts and colorful wheels and tires cost just a few thousand dollars. “The fact is, you just don’t need all those gears,” explained _____, an advertising copywriter, woodworker, filmmaker, and fixed-gear enthusiast. “Eddy Merckx won the Tour de France in the 80s like six times on a fixed-gear. All that other stuff is just marketing.”

And it’s not just 20-somethings who are joining the revolution either. Older, experienced cyclists are also re-discovering the joyous simplicity of cycling thanks to fixed-gears. “I love it,” said _____, a lawyer, father of four, Porsche club of America member, and recent fixed-gear convert. “It reminds me of why I got into cycling in the first place. I recently converted my titanium Serotta to a fixed-gear. My knees hurt, my thighs ache, and I’m experiencing more penile numbness than usual, but according to my SRM I’m putting out more watts at lactate threshold, which makes it worth it. Plus, it’s a zen thing. You feel totally connected to the bike. All that other stuff is just marketing.”

It’s safe to say at this point that an entire culture has grown around the fixed-gear bicycle. At _____, a downtown bicycle shop that specializes in fixed-gears, owner _____ sells not only the latest in bicycles and parts but also a complete line of fixed-gear specific clothing that allows riders both male and female to easily adopt the young Audrey Hepburn look that is currently in vogue. And while _____ can’t sell you a brake, he can sell you a $50 t-shirt with the shop’s logo on it. _____ also promotes fixed-gear-specific contests which feature events like skidding, track-standing, and other competitions focused entirely on slowing or simply not riding the bicycle. _____ explains that shops like his embody the future of bicycle retail, and says that his customers are looking for something different. In fact, he says fixed-gears may just be the future of cycling.

“All that carbon fiber and gear stuff is just marketing,” _____ told me. “Fausto Coppi won the Giro d’Italia like six times in the ‘70s on a fixed-gear bike, and I think people want to get back to that simplicity. It’s like a zen thing. You feel totally connected to the bike.”

Wow. Now I feel like a total asshole for doing my winter base training on the fixie. Hmmm... wonder where I can get some cold weather skinny jeans and a nice silk headscarf to go over my polypro beanie and Atmos... gotta keep up the Hepburn look.

Oh well, even if I'm already passe, at least it's like a zen thing and, I feel totally connected to the bike.

In some scenes it was a fixed-gear and in others it wasn't. There are definitely some points where he's walking with the bike and the cranks are turning--yet they've dubbed the sound of a clicking freewheel over it. Oops!

Another disturbing trend is the disregard for common sense by not wearing a helmet. _____, a graphic designer and volunteer at the Oakland Zoo, feels that he has a greater visibility when spinning down Franklin St without a helmet. Plus he noted that "the Dutch riders won the Alpe d'Huez TDF stage like 7 times in the 70's on a fixie without helmets."

Good Times. I'm going to forward this to the Ashland, OR paper since I'm going to be down there soon and I will be bringing the fixed gear craze with me. I think it would be good advertising for the LBS's down there. I'm going to call them and give them a heads up too. Thanks BSNYC, good times indeed.

"Oooooh brah it's just like, dude, you get the best barrels ever, dude, just like, you pull in, and you just get spit right out of 'em, you just drop in and just smack the lip Whoapack!drop down Sapow!"

fact-checker said...sambo,skid stopping requires no power output by definition as the cranks are not moving, if it did it might bulk up you quads so you didnt fit in your skinny jeans anymoreNiki said...I stand corrected about power. Since power is work/time, and work is force*distance, no work (and thus no power) is done when the cranks aren't moving.

I fail to see how no work is done 'skidding'.Since the cranks are always rotating force or work must be applied to "resist" the momentum.

Yeah I agree with derisory velo, it is tragically funny. I laughed out loud all the way through, and then felt kind of dirty and sick to my stomach when it was over. Sometimes these posts are so right-on that I feel bummed about the prospect of ever just enjoying riding a bicycle because I like to ride it, instead of to belong to some social group.

There's basically no place for a sensible fixed-gear machine, with brake(s), shallow section rims, and god forbid, fenders. "Serious cyclists" turn up their noses at the "fixed gear trend" and fixsters snub the absence of deep-Vs and presence of the brake.

I had a guy tell me over the weekend that his 70's Schwinn touring-to-fixed conversion "got way stiffer" when he switched to his gold-anodized deep Vs (he was criticizing the use of a 105 hub with an open pro --- on an aluminum/carbon bike). He also said that toeclips and straps are dumb; he rides with plain BMX pedals and has no brakes.

Taking advantage of a radical shift on the laws of physics, I had my mechanic put my car on a lift, then I stood under it and had him lower the lift. Viola! It took no power to hold 800kg of car over my head beause it wasn't moving.

I say helmet over brakes. Even a safe rider can crash, be doored, hit from behind etc,. Admittedly helmets look dorky, but so do head injury victims.

I went to school for film but I am not a filmmaker, I like to get paid so I can pay rent. Expensive clothes are lame though. Colors are pretty but I like black and silver wheels. Scarves are lame when it is hot, they make sense when it is cold. Seeing people WITH toe clips ride out of them because they can't operate toe clips makes me want to vomit. Good day.

Snob, I heartily disagree with you on the helmet issue, as you can be a great cyclist and still have no control over your destiny during an accident. Check out some of the crash photos on this blog (its not my blog by the way), and then consider your next ride.

..."dude, those film guys over there wanted to use me for a commercial shoot cuz i look good in my slims, til they found out i'm not a chick...who's audrey hepburn anyway, bro ?......so whatever, i'm still supposed to ride my fix & meet the producer for breakfast at tiffany's, where ever that is ?..."

I'm no physicist but I can't understand how there's no energy involved in overcoming the kenetic energy to stop of FGF using only the pedals. It doesn't develop the calf muscle because it doesn't seem you're using that muscle.

Having never ridden a FGF but imagining how it would feel to do that on my roadie, I can't see how doing a skid stop engages the calf muscle for more than stabalizing. Seems more like effort of thighs to me, am I wrong?

On point as usual but you left out a few important bits, leading me to believe that you haven't fully penetrated the FG collective-consciousness: "Dude its like, so quiet."

One hare-brained rider I met, espousing the same stupid ideology of a 'quiet ride' (perhaps unachievable by those with a free-wheel since you only ever coast on those bikes apparently), got onto a rant about how much he hates deraileurs. "Dude, I hate deraileurs so much. It's just like. *Silence*". Apparently he thought it was the deraileur making the clicking noise... good thing he did have a handy knowledge about how hot the 'track bike scene' is right now. He rode brakeless.

Ok, piss funny post, but nore importantly on the power question.... everyone is focusing on once you are skidding where I agree there is no power output however from the point at which you start resisting the pedals to the point at which the skid occurs there is a lot of power output.As Niki said "power is work/time, and work is force*distance". It takes a lot of force to stop the wheel in a short distance and as the time is also very small the power required is significant....saying it takes no power to skid doesn't sound right and it isn't

Aww Jeez, Yeah, the old tour de france guys rode fixies. Cool. Most of them probably couldn't walk by the time they were forty. P.S.- Will freewheel ever become the new fixed?P.S.S.-Fausto died from Malaria.

Ommm Ommm, Oh excuse me I was just connecting with the Dalai Lama and Richard Gere when our lines got crossed. Must be a crossed zen connection but I will call the phone company about line difficulties later. Richie was telling me that he has been grooving around Holliwood on this cool new form of transport, a gold plated fixie or something like that.He claims that the Porsche is gathering dust now. Must look into it, must go as I have another ten thousand Ommmm Ommmmm's to go.

I don't think you got the lawyer bit quite right. The father of four, Porsche driving guys I know all go for the carbon fiber, "full Ultegra", spandex super roadie thing.

It's us struggling "people's lawyer" types clinging to the shreds of our punk credibility who are willing to beat ourselves to death riding fixies. Not so much a zen thing -- more of an ego and fear-of-impending-old-age-and-death thing.

Please pretty please do a piece on the boring roadie sub culture to shut up those princesses that think that we are some untouchable deities of the road. Let's face it , anyone that spends sizeable amounts of hours peering up someone's posterior a metre ahead is either anally fixated or soon to be. Personally I have subscribed to solitude

Technically skid stopping does require power, as you are exerting a net force over a distance (which, if long enough, will propel you to unseen heights of hipness). The tire exerts a force acting opposite the direction the bike is moving... you provide the locking force.

(Imagining sharing a paceline with Todd and getting all tingly as their eyes lock for just a moment as broomie rotates off the front after a long pull. He sees Todd's eyes scan him up and down. Todd's lips move as he says something to broomie, but his words are lost in the wind. While gazing at broomie's chisled calf, Todd clips the wheel in front of him at 28mph. First it makes a sound like a loud zipper and he and goes down faster than he did at the club's hot tub party....)

Sorry did I miss something. Was just down the Brokeback Mountain General store getting some Assos saddle creme and delipatory gel.My those stores know how to charge when they have you over a barrel..... ??????

What's with these FGF pussies? BSNYC has done a pretty good job thumbing his nose at roadies, down-hillers, gravity junkies, BMX'ers, tall bikers, tandems, and 'bents.

Read the past posts instead of picking up this month's Bicycling and catching the article between Toyota ads and thinking he only rips on you guys.

Sure, he hits you more often than the others but that's because you deserve it (and because it's his post to do with as he pleases). If you don't like it, start BrakeSnob-Debuque or something and get over it.

What the hell... you can play in traffic with no brakes and a padded bra on your top tube but you can't appreciate a little good natured ribbing?

Go to Limited, get a new pair of jeans, then to CVS for some tampons and quit your complaining.

Glad to report that Kevin Bacon is still riding a fixie although he seems to have lost kudos points as when I was picking up my new road bike at an NYC store in '07 he was in there getting a new wheel for his (gasp) LANGSTER after it got pinched. It did have a belt of .50 cal bullets around the stem so he is still keeping it badass though (haha).

Broomie... absolutely nothing wrong with you wearing spandex. Jane Fonda made a killing wearing the stuff in the '80s. All I'm saying is that roadies in full kit bashing on anyone else's attire is a bit... ironic.

I ride a bike to commute to work. 10 miles there, 10 miles back. I wear normal clothes. People don't hassle me or yell things at me. The roadies at the bike shop I frequent, however, are always telling stories of people shouting at them ("Live Strong!" is apparently a pretty popular one), throwing things at them, harassing them, etc.

So, I can understand why roadies are so pissed at the world and are desperate to have someone else they can bash on. The hipster fixed gear crowd is that group, and that's nice. You have to understand, however, how ridiculous it really appears from the outside looking in, especially when roadies leave comments filled with obviously serious loathing, like anon 4:52.

I agree that people should be able to laugh at themselves, but a lot of the roadies who leave hate-filled rants on here don't seem to be laughing themselves.

In summary, it's almost 100% guaranteed that no matter what you think, you're just as corny and ridiculous as the kids BSNYC is constantly bashing on. Just keep that in mind and everything will be OK.

Anon 11:09 AM:i agree that many of the roadies here border on insufferable, but, to be honest, so does your mission to show them what they probably already know. so what if they find respite here. i'm sure you're not changing anyone, and neither of us have to read their comments.

and, if you read a little further, you'll find this blog's comments contain glib diatribes from all corners of cycling, including plain clothed commuters.

yes, i did read your post and then call your comment insufferable. why? because you seem to be missing the point entirely. in evereything, including my comment. i'm sorry you've been cursed with the mission to correct the ironies of this world, but until you clear off the thick glaze of myopic idiocy from your eyes, you'll find it difficult to fulfill that mission.

yes, i did read your post and then call your comment insufferable. why? because you seem to be missing the point entirely. in evereything, including my comment. i'm sorry you've been cursed with the mission to correct the ironies of this world, but until you clear off the thick glaze of myopic idiocy from your eyes, you'll find it difficult to fulfill that mission.

i've never worn lycra in my life. i've never "trained" or raced. i'm probably further from a roadie than just about anyone here.

"just commenting, that's what comment sections are for."

that's what the roadies whose irony you're hell bent on reforming could just as easily say back to you. you know, speaking of irony, and all. you've just taken it to a new level. let me go brush my teeth with it.

...if we could just get that sensible young man who was defending 'britney' all over the media recently, to weigh in here & make you folks realize "we need bike love here, people, bike love...stop the hate !!!"...

...slim hipped androgynous fixsters, snooty lycra-clad roadies, muddy, baggy mtb-ers, geeky lime-vested commuters, slack-seated recumbent-alists...the general public will laugh at all of us & never care about any of us if we go on this way...

...oops, sorry, proceed as before...i was just informed that the general public has been laughing at us for years & has no inclination to care about us anyway...

I don't wear lycra because I am prone to getting erections when riding. It makes me feel ashamed. A lot of skateboarders and surfers are skinny too. Exercise will do that. Not eating crap food will do that too. I eat everything I can until I am 90% full - a Japanese man taught me that, and I want my diet to be 100% NJS. Maybe just maybe fixed gear riders are skinny because they ride a bike a lot. And why do skinny jean indicate a lack of masculinity? They confine my boners better than stretchy material.

Roadies are choads, they all want to TdF or Roubaix but none of them have the balls, and if they do, they are far too small (have been compressed so hard from years of weekend lycra) to pack up their Zipp's and live. Rather than question their failed dreams and vicarious attempts to live on the weekends they divert themselves by attempting to beat FGFs into submission in the hopes they to will dawn the lycra necessary to squash their broken dreams.

Spot on! (well, except maybe for the Jane Fonda comment - that was a hit below the belt!). You ride 20 mi/day, 100 mi/wk, which is more than probably 90% of self-proclaimed "roadies", myself included. Interesting theory - is it the clothes or the actions that generate the insults and projectiles from cars? Obviously a good portion we (roadies) bring on ourselves. As for the lycra, yes, I have to admit, looking at it from an outsiders perspective it is dorky (my coworkers ridicule me daily as I stroll past their cubicles for my midday ride), as is the leg shaving, etc. I'm not pissed at the world - I just have a really big ego, and I'm glad I finally found a sport I can be reasonably competitive at! My hat's off to all the bike commuters out there - REAL cyclists! No need to brush your teeth on my account!

Wow, this is the first time I've ever read BSNYC and holy crap! You guys sure have a lot of baggage! I go on rides with people on all kinds of different bikes and we never seem to get in any slapping matches over the equipment attached to our rear hubs. Maybe it's a NY thing?

It seems to imply the only bikers that are ok are XC mountain bikers and road weenies eh? :)

I'm an hardtail XCer... Need a new bike so I'll go for full susp but I'm not really hip enough to know what "freeride" and "all mountain" are. I'm also looking for a fixie for fun. Trying not to "personalize" it too much as I don't want to look like a total weenie or whatever.

Anyway the article's a little heavy-handed... I generally prefer a little more subtlety and irony. I'm a Mac whore for example so having listened to a lot of straight derision over the years I don't think it stands the test of time that well.

And work and force are two distinct physical quantities, people... Go look it up on Wikipedia forchristssake!

Military pilot who had sex with an 11 year old boy when he was 17!!!A JUNIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL WHO HAD SEX WITH AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENT!!! This pedophile needs to be on a sexual preditor list.How long did he masterbate and think about having sex with boys? In boot camp? Into his flight training? 20, 25 YEARS OLD??? OLDER???

Some articles are classics, and this is one of them, so it deserves continued respect and refinement.

I would like to point out a somewhat glaring technical flaw. You write: "it (a fixie) lacks the shifting mechanisms that are technically referred to as 'gears.'"

a bicycle without a chain and two gears won't go very far. the shifting mechanisms are actually technically referred to as 'shift levers', and 'derailers' (collectively 'shifters'). the gears are technically referred to as a chainwheel (front) and a cog (rear), but that's more than most people want to know.

sometimes it can be easy to fall into the trap of over-complicating things, but fortunately we bike riders are a forgiving lot.

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About Me

While I love cycling and embrace it in all its forms, I'm also extremely critical. So I present to you my venting for your amusement and betterment. No offense meant to the critiqued. Always keep riding!